Ahern dared ask the Rahmfather whether he'd send his kids to the public schools he controls. He reportedly became indignant, took off his microphone and ended the interview.

Later, and with great courtesy, Emanuel revisited the topic with a rival station — which then reported the big exclusive that the mayor was sending his children to a private school.

Emanuel runs Chicago Public Schools. He's shown grit to stand publicly and admonish the teachers union to improve the product. But he decided his children will not attend the public schools.

Instead, they'll travel across the city, from the Northwest Side to Hyde Park, as students of the exclusive, pricey and private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.

"If I made a decision about my children that was not as a father, but as mayor, first of all, my kids would know it — because it is exactly what we said, they have a sixth sense about that — and I'd be less as a father," he told CBS.

Who could argue? He's a father who wants the best for his children, and he can't find it at CPS. The thing is, most every parent in Chicago would agree.

Cops, firefighters, city workers could tell you. People scraping by on minimum wage and whatever passes for government cheese these days could tell you too. But they can't afford the private tuition, and Emanuel has made his millions through his political contacts.

At least he's following precedent. In the last half-century, have any Chicago mayors sent their children to public schools? I could be wrong. But I doubt it.

Still, was his scolding of the reporter truly an eruption? And when he waved the Rahmsian finger of wrath at Ahern, was it the stumpy one that he sliced off years ago as a teenage fast-food worker?

It was a question that intrigued many pundits, including WLS-AM hosts Dan Proft and Bruce Wolf.

"I guess what I'm asking," Wolf said, "did he give her the full Arby?"

Yes, Emanuel is the boss. And, yes, he's acting as any responsible father would act, making the best choice possible on his children's behalf.

But it's a choice denied most every other parent who is forced by city employment residency laws or poverty to send their children to failing Chicago public schools.

But there's a solution: vouchers, a system in which parents receive public money for their children's education, and take it to the school of their choice.

And without a true voucher system that would give parents the freedom to choose their schools in Chicago — public, private or parochial — there can be no fairness.

That's why I wanted state Sen. James Meeks to campaign for mayor. He's a proponent of vouchers. And nothing quite illustrates the argument like political elites sending their kids to private schools while denying vouchers to others.

Clearly, there are many responsible and reasonable people who oppose vouchers and say that they won't work. I've heard the arguments. So have you. Some of you have heard them for decades.

And so billions of dollars have been wasted and the futures of generations of children have been abandoned, and still, why are some so desperate to maintain the status quo?

Because they feed off it, sucking up money, or power, or both. Year after year, urban public schools have failed everyone, the students, the parents, everyone except the Democratic Party leaders who benefit. The unions benefit, the vendors, the bureaucrats. And they pay the Democrats with votes. Everybody wins except the poorest children.

It's cynical plantation politics, and the children are the cash crop.

And under the restrictive — and selectively interpreted — residency laws, Chicago schools have a captive middle class. Cops and firefighters and city workers and teachers must live in the city to keep their jobs.

They can't leave town and raise their kids in the suburbs, even if they keep a house address in Chicago. The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that a presidential chief of staff, living in Washington, with kids in Washington, can be considered a resident of Chicago. But don't be naive enough to think this standard would apply to others.

So if students can't be squeezed into top magnet high schools, the parents are compelled to fork over more than they can afford for parochial education. Or leave the city.

This sets up an unequal, two-tiered system, with limited resources. And in a city so historically corrupt, the dispensing of limited resources has predictable and cynical outcomes.

In March 2010, for example, the Tribune reported on the VIP list maintained by Chicago Public Schools. A nephew of former Mayor Richard Daley's lobbied to get a political supporter's two daughters into an elite high school. And there were other reports that Chicago politicians — including a so-called reform alderman — tried to clout their own children into select schools.

Those who win a spot in the excellent magnet schools sing the system's praises and lavish the politicians with praise and votes. And those who don't are abandoned to fate.